


Rock Walls aren't the Only Things He Wants to Climb

by Tales_Of_Chrom



Category: Persona 5, Persona Series
Genre: Bouldering, Crushes, Kinda Horny because it's from Akira's pov, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-01
Updated: 2019-12-01
Packaged: 2021-02-25 04:35:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,299
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21630262
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tales_Of_Chrom/pseuds/Tales_Of_Chrom
Summary: Akechi proves that bouldering isn't as easy as it looks.
Relationships: Akechi Goro/Amamiya Ren, Akechi Goro/Kurusu Akira, Akechi Goro/Persona 5 Protagonist
Comments: 22
Kudos: 162





	Rock Walls aren't the Only Things He Wants to Climb

**Author's Note:**

> hey man idk I was inspired to write this because I saw this poppin fanart by illiaccrest on tumblr of Akechi rock climbing w/ harness and biking. It also had Ann doing yoga, Ryuji running and Haru picking up a bag of fertilizer it's great, check em out.
> 
> happy holidays :)

“So…” Akira stared at the entrance of the climbing gym, suddenly very aware of his less than muscular forearms. 

“So.” Goro smiled, seemingly unaware of Akira’s sudden shyness. 

“We just go in?”

“Yes, it is open after all.” 

“Of course.” And with that Akira pushed the door. It didn’t budge. He tried again and the door remained firmly shut.

Goro took a very deep, very calming breath through his nose and smiled disarmingly. “It’s a pull.”

Akira glanced back and flashed a coy, confidant smirk. “I was just testing you.” 

“Of course.” Goro didn’t miss the glowing red tips of Akira’s ears as the young man scurried into the building like it would absolve him of his mistake. Goro just smiled and followed him in.

The first thing that hit Akira was the smell. It smelled like a normal gym to some extent but it also smelled dusty, in a weird way that he couldn’t place until he spotted some people sticking their hands in bags on their waists only for them to come out white. Chalk, his mind rationed, quickly throwing away the other guesses of: flour, baking soda and sugar. He should have eaten before coming after all. Surely the bakery nearby would be open by the time they were don-

“Goro! Welcome back!” The receptionist behind the front desk circled around to the front of it and gave the detective what could only be described as a bear hug, easily lifting the brunet off the floor like a fisher price chair. He was older but broad shouldered, dark haired and had the sort of rugged outdoorsman look that was very uncommon in the city. He also had a distinctly American accent that took Akira by surprise, though that did explain a lot of what just happened.

“Okay okay- It’s good to see you too, Derrick. Please put me down.” Akira found himself wishing Goro would be that receptive to hugs from him but quickly banished the thought. They were just friends, very good friends. Very, very good friends. Of course.

The beast, Derrick, finally put Goro down and looked at Akira who nodded in acknowledgement of the older man. “I see you’ve brought a friend this time. You never bring friends, what changed?”

Goro seemed to wince at the unintentional pass at his personal life but it was probably just a trick of the light. “My friend here,” Goro put a hand on Akira’s back for emphasis “told me that bouldering was easy. So I decided to invite him here so he could try it himself.”

Derrick gave Akira a once over which made him feel like a new flat screen in Junes during a black friday sale and the booming laughter that followed didn’t help; it was the kind that drew brief attention from other climbers. “Climbing is easy? I suppose it is, after the first 30 times.”

Akira had a feeling that it was going to end up like this. Honestly, he should have known something was off when Goro’s smile had taken an edge to it when he suggested they go climbing that weekend. 

“Don’t worry! If you come here twice, maybe three times a week then you’ll be climbing like a pro in no time. Lucky for you there’s a special going on for a 3 month membersh-”

“Derrick please, save it for afterwards.” Goro sighed.

“Ah sorry, a habit.” Derrick rubbed at the back of his neck sheepishly before going back behind the desk and rapidly typing something on the laptop, probably Goro’s check in info. Outwardly Akira was just standing there with his hands in his pockets but inwardly his jaw was on the ground. Just how familiar were these two?! It wasn’t fair. Then again, it seemed like Goro had been bouldering for a while so they probably knew each other for over a year and Akira barely knew Goro in comparison but still, the blatant flaunting of their familiarity with each other had him bristling.

But it also gave him hope. Maybe one day he would be that close with Goro. It was a nice thought that was interrupted by Derrick who wanted him to fill out an electronic form that excused the gym from legal repercussions if he injured himself while using their equipment. Fair enough.

One legal form, 1,900 yen and a good luck clap on the back from Derrick later, Akira was standing cluelessly in the locker area of the bouldering room. There were open cubbies and coin lockers for those who wanted to feel extra safe as well as padlocked lockers with names on them. Akira took note of the locker that had G. Akechi written on an adhesive paper stuck to the front just below the grating. There was also a gold star sticker on the top left corner, probably a marker for how long Goro had been a member of the gym.

Akira tossed his wallet, phone and shoes into a high cubby before turning to face the climbing area. There were rock walls with differently shaped handholds which were all different colours. Some had 2 strips of tape on the side of them that were a similar colour to the handhold and others had no tape at all. There were also walls that were just made of wood with handholds bolted onto them that ranged from a basic 90 degrees to a spicy hot 70 degree climb. There was some sort of pattern to the tape, obviously, but he honestly had no idea where to start. 

Goro appeared at Akira’s side and gave him a cheeky, quizzical look. He had changed out of his slacks and white short sleeve button up to a simple greyish white form fitting athletic shirt and dark grey form fitting athletic shorts and oh fuck oh god shit fu- “Are you ready?”

“I’m gay- great. I’m great. Ready to go.” The room was very well air conditioned but that didn’t stop the sweat from forming on Akira’s brow. Goro was nice enough to ignore his Freudian slip (probably because he thought Freud was full of shit like everyone else who likes psychology) and gestured over to a nice and vertical wall.

“Okay then, let’s start you off on something easy because I take it you’ve never gone climbing before.” Oh he had climbed before, just not in the real world. Joker was great at parkouring across palaces and the like, surely climbing in the real world was similar… “Just follow the colour you’ve picked all the way to the corresponding coloured tape at the top. Don’t climb onto the top of the wall though, it’s quite dusty and also not allowed.”

Akira took his hands out of his pockets and nodded before analyzing the rock wall. There were four different colours to choose from. Two of the colours were labeled as ‘V0’, one was ‘V1’ and one was ‘V3+’. They all seemed straightforward enough so Akira grabbed a hold of two red handholds only for Goro to click his tongue at him. “You have to hold onto the ones that have the tape on them.” Akira looked at the ones he had touched and only one of them were marked with tape. The other one with the red tape was a little ways away and didn’t have as nice a grip but he managed, barely. 

Akira wanted to tap into his Joker persona for this but it was really hard to concentrate on anything but which handhold he wanted to reach for next. His fingers always felt dangerously close to slipping and his forearms were crying for the sweet release of death. He could feel Goro’s gaze too and that was probably the only thing stopping him from straight up letting go and taking a ten minute break right there. 

The end was in sight after what seemed like hours, but it was also so, so far away. The last handhold was technically a short swing to reach the top of the wall but Akira’s arms were shaking so bad he knew he couldn’t make it even if the gods willed it. But Goro was still watching him. Shit. Akira chanced a glance down where Goro was watching him and god dammit he was smirking because he also knew Akira couldn’t make it. Suddenly he didn’t feel so tired. With a deep breath and a silent prayer to any god that felt like listening Akira pushed off of his foothold and pulled up with his hand that was holding the handhold as much as he could, reaching for the top of the wall with his free hand. His fingers made it and for a second both Goro and Akira thought he actually did it, until they slipped off and Akira with them.

His back hit the padded floor with a “puoof” that sent up a small cloud of chalk dust. He could hear Goro’s snickering from his place on the floor but didn’t say anything, more like couldn’t. He was still trying to catch his breath from his little stunt from moments ago. 

“I’m surprised you lasted that long on a V3+ route.” A hand entered Akira’s field of vision so he took it, allowing himself to be pulled up in a surprisingly fast manner. Well actually it wasn’t much of a surprise due to how the athletic shirt clung to the detective’s sizable biceps. And wow that was actually the first time he had ever touched Goro Akechi’s bare hands. They were soft, to an extent, he could feel the callouses despite their deceptive softness; Goro probably moisturized.

“Is the V3+ route harder or something? I just picked it because it was red.” Akira tilted his head to the side, fighting the urge to smirk. He had figured the higher the number was the harder the climb would be but he was playing dumb just to seem like he hadn’t been actively trying to show off.. 

Goro chuckled, his eyes crinkling at the sides just a bit in the way they never did when he was on TV. “Yes, the higher the number the harder they tend to be. The numbers often hint at the time of grips and skills you’ll be utilizing to complete the climb, at least for this gym.”

Akira hummed in response, fixing his glasses and running his hands down his sweatpants like he was dusting himself off but it was mostly to hide that fact that they had gotten very sweaty after Goro pulled him up. “That makes sense I guess. So then, what’s the highest number you can-”

“V10.” Wow it felt like Goro was prepared for that question or something with how fast he had the answer ready for him. 

“So, is that the highest one?”

“Nearly, they can go as high as 11 or 12 but it’s been awhile since Derrick put any of those up. No one could climb them except him…” Akira could hear the jealousy lining the admiration in Goro’s tone. “I’m sure he would put one up if I inquired about it.”

“For sure.”

Someone fell off a wall a little ways away and interrupted them. They both turned to look at the sound. The climber had been trying to do a super steep cliff face wall and didn’t quite make it. Akira couldn’t blame ‘em, he could barely make it on a vertical wall after all. The climber dusted themselves off and walked away from the wall, leaving it open for use. Perfect.

“So, you’re telling me you can climb that?”

Goro’s eyes flicked from Akira to the cliff wall. “Yes. That one is a V9+ if I recall.” 

It was an obvious challenge that Goro obviously wasn’t going to back down from. So they both walked over to wall. He was right, the route was a V9+. It also had a title: ‘Spiderman’. Cheesy, Akira kinda liked it. 

Goro grabbed the starting handhold, which was very very close to the ground for some reason, and then started the climb and Akira would be a liar if he said watching Goro effortlessly pull himself up from handhold to handhold wasn’t hot as hell. He was clearly in his element because he was confident enough to keep glancing back at Akira to make sure he was watching- he definitely was. 

When he eventually went upside down it was clear that climbing wasn’t just an arm exercise like Akira thought it was initially. He could see the muscles in Goro’s legs flexing to keep him in a controlled horizontal position, no doubt his abs were getting a workout. What he wouldn’t give to see those abs. The new position also made it easy to see Goro’s back muscles rippling under the tight athletic shirt, it was torture. Surely he was going to die. He could feel the blood pounding through the veins in his face and then there was the treacherous shift where the blood was trying to go to other, lower places but he quickly willed himself to think of cleaner thought-

“I told you I could, Kurusu.” Goro was hanging by just one hand from the top of the wall, looking back at him over his shoulder. How the fuck was he even doing that? Akira could barely hang by two hands and oh jesus mother f- the view of Goro’s ass from where he was hanging AND the slight bulge of his fucking- that was the straw that vaporized the camel’s back because Akira nodded his head quickly to agree before excusing himself to the bathroom. 

~

Goro watched Akira scramble off to the bathroom and practically trip out of his climbing shoes and only when that head of dark hair disappeared into the bathroom did he allow himself to smirk.

**Author's Note:**

> hey man today I bring this who knows what tomorrow will bring. 
> 
> also if I never get back to this just know they either- fucked in the bathroom or they makeout in the bathroom. And akechi knew exactly what he was doing leading up to it too because he really like that (tm).
> 
> As for when this is set... IDK give me a break give me a piece of that kit kat bar


End file.
